1. Local search: The Gift of Reviews
David C. Smith
December 15, 2011
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

2. The Marketing Hourglass
•Who and how
Know •Ads
•Referrals
•Web site/blog
Starts Here
Like •Reception
•Newsletter
•Search
Trust •Expert content
•Sales presentation
•Webinar
Try •Evaluation
•Nurturing
•Service team
Buy •New customer kit
•Finance/delivery
Goal
•Post project survey
Repeat •Cross selling
•Quarterly events
•Results reviews
Refer •Partner intros
•Peer2peer events
© Duct Tape Marketing – all rights reserved
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

3. Total Web Presence
Hub and Spoke
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Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

4. Where do we get information?
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

5. 5 Actions that get you found
1. Make your web pages local friendly
2. Build out your local search profiles
3. Get proactive in the review game
4. Get listed, cited and mentioned
5. Spread the local social love
Local Search is part of your overall marketing strategy…
It’s not THE strategy!
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

6. 5 Actions that get you found
1. Make your web pages local friendly
2. Build out your local search profiles
3. Get proactive in the review game
4. Get listed, cited and mentioned
5. Spread the local social love
Local Search is part of your overall marketing strategy…
It’s not THE strategy!
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

7. 1 Make your web pages local friendly
1. Geo Content
2. Links and External Anchor Text
3. Community resource
4. Local Contributors
5. Local Landing Pages
Live Right Chiropractic office image
from their web site. Meta data tag
and descriptions should say
something like: “Boise Idaho’s back
pain relieve specialist”
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

8. What makes it geo?
1. Addresses
2. Maps and more
3. Meta data
4. hcard and snippets
5. Local/mobile keywords
meta name="zipcode" content=”83716, 83706, etc, etc”
meta name="city" content=”Boise”
meta name="state" content=”Idaho”
meta name="ICBM" content="59.10246, -67.59009 – this is your longitude and latitude.
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

9. 2 Build out your local search profiles
1. Claim – Places, Bing,
Yahoo
2. Keywords, Categories,
and Description
3. Add Video and Images
4. Google Tags and Google
Boost
5. Rate and Review –
Google Places, Yelp…
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

10. 2 Build out your local search profiles
1. Org name
2. Description
3. Category
4. Service/Product
5. Images & Video
Yahoo Local is partially
complete. Note: Category!!
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

11. 3 Get proactive in the review game
1. List, claim, and build
2. Use it to make you better
3. Monitor profiles
4. Get proactive
5. Consider
advertising
Need reviews
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

12. 3a Review Sites beyond Search Engines
1. Yelp.com – checkin offers
2. Insiderpages.com
3. Citysearch.com
4. Local.com
5. MerchantCircle.com
3b Generate Reviews
1. Ask for references
2. Repurpose and post
3. Teach reviewing
4. Give reviews
5. Hold a review event
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

13. 4 Get listed, cited and mentioned
1. Data compilers
2. IYPs
3. Memberships
4. check my listing
– getlisted.org/
This is a decent score..but
should be upper 90s. Also
need to reconcile multiple
names.
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

14. 4 Get listed, cited and mentioned
Helpful sites:
1. infoUSA
2. Localeze
3. Universal
Business
Listings
UBL report: there’s a
disconnect somewhere.
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

15. 5 Spread the local social love
1. Start a Local Group Online
2. Find and Network with Local
Bloggers Remember – it’s
3. Hold Meetups and Tweetups
4. Find local leads
5. Places –
Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter
6. Location Games (Middleton –
Geocaching)
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

16. 5 Actions that get you found
1. Make your web pages local friendly
2. Build out your local search profiles
3. Get proactive in the review game
4. Get listed, cited and mentioned
5. Spread the local social love
Local Search is part of your overall marketing strategy…
It’s not THE strategy!
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

17. The value of a communication strategy
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

18. Now What?
1. Read Review Structure paper
2. Write reviews
a. Google - www.google.com/placesforbusiness
b. Yelp - http://www.yelp.com/writeareview
c. BBB- http://snake-river.bbb.org/
d. LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com
3. Use your experience with your customers
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

19. The six questions you need to ask to get
a powerful testimonial are:
1. What was the obstacle that would have prevented
you from buying this product?
2. What did you find as a result of buying this product?
3. What specific feature did you like most about this
product?
4. What would be three other benefits about this
product?
5. Would you recommend this product? If so, why?
6. Is there anything you’d like to add?
Source: Sean D’Souza: www.copyblogger.com/testimonials-part-1
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

20. Example
When I first heard about Marketing Strategy and Duct Tape
Marketing, I thought, "WTH? Here we go again! This is gonna be
another BS way of saying the same thing that everyone else is saying
like web sites, SEO, and referrlas, only they'll charge a lot more for
it.” WAS I WRONG! David Smith, from Valens Point, the local Duct
Tape Marketing consultant, met with me and my team last week and
all I can say is, "Wow" .
With Valens Point’s help we have built a marketing strategy that
actually gets result for our money, brings us better clients and
importantly, get us all on the same page. I recommend Valens Point’s
Marketing Strategy program to small business owners looking to
improve their sales and stop wasting money on marketing.
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

21. Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

22. Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

23. Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

24. Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

25. Follow-up Steps for your Business
– Set Goals: 2 reviews a month, 24 for the year?
– Establish process:
• Determine the right place / time
• Ask for exactly what you want
• Describe how they will accomplish the review
• Think about incentives
• Revise target site or focus on a quarterly basis
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

26. Follow-up Steps for your Business
– Process Idea
• Phone customers and discuss service, product and
the major obstacle they overcame to buy
• Ask for review, and if YES
• Send them a thank you card with the exact
instructions of what your would like as an insert.
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

27. Follow-up Steps for your Business
Sara,
Thank you for being one of our best customers and
agreeing to provide a review. As we discussed on the
Objection phone you were pleasantly surprised about how affordable
our “package” was. I would like your review to discuss
your feeling about the perceived price and then how you
felt later about the actual price and value of the “package”.
In addition please consider the following question and how
you might answer them in the review;
• What did you find as a result of buying this product?
• What specific feature did you like most about this
product?
Details • What would be three other benefits about this
product?
• Would you recommend this product? If so, why?
• Is there anything you’d like to add?
If you think it might help you get started I recently posted a
Example review on Jane’s website which you can see here
www.jane.com/review. It’s sort of like what I would love to
see from you. Promotion of
Jane’s site
Thank you again, David
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

28. Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary

29. My gift to you:
FREE MARKETING AUDIT @
www.valenspoint.com
david.c.smith@ValensPoint.com
208.250.1230
www.ValensPoint.com
Twitter: valenspoint
Twitter: davidc_smith
Simple l Actionable l Measurable l Advice
Copyright © 2010, Valens Point LLC - Confidential and Proprietary